Notes on German Star Trek

TL:DR

This space provides notes on Star Trek’s history, dubbing and fandom in the German language area from the perspective of a native German speaker that became a Trekkie through anglophone versions, conventions, and fan communities in the 2010s.

Background

When I grew up in Innsbruck (Austria) in the 1980s I loved Star Trek in general and Leonard Nimoy‘s Spock in particular.
However, my solitary identity and the chaotic dubbing made me stay away from local fan groups or becoming a die-hard Trekkie.

In the late 1990s the early internet made me acquire a taste for original English versions of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, TV shows and movies. Bilingual broadcasts of some series (Seinfeld, Ellen), the rise of DVDs with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, and repeated vacations in England intensified that preference.
Curious side note: Around that time, in 1999, I did attend the Star Trek World Tour in Vienna (Austria) but was so disappointed it actually increased my emotional distance from Trek.

When Destination Star Trek (DST) brought all 5 Star Trek TV captains (as of that time) to my favourite vacation location London (UK) in 2012 I entered the convention circus, felt very welcome (Thanks Trekkie Girls!) and joined the growing Trekkie community on social media.

While waiting for a DST Dortmund 2018 panel to start I got bored enough to join a smalltalk among German fans – and ended up getting my hands on a rare convention & single room package for FedCon 27 which took place in Bonn (Germany) only 4 weeks later. Despite living in German-speaking Austria all life that marked my very late 1st (!) full contact with the German Trekkie community.

Still, joining Larry Nemecek‘s Portal 47 after meeting him at DST Birmingham 2018 and appearing on The Engage Podcast‘s episode 107 on franchise fatigue in 2019 kept me on the English side of Star Trek fandom for the time beeing.

In 2020 the SaRS2/Covid-19 pandemic made in-person conventions impossible but triggered a lot of new online activities.
At ScienceDiv‘s CONnectedCon I zoom-met Allison Pitt from Daily Star Trek News and ended up promising her to provide details about ancient problems with the German dubbing of Star Trek.
Last Geek Tonight (German only, featuring Nessi and other FedCon alumni) made me find Raumschiff Eberswalde (a 17.01 m² Star Trek museum in Germany) and finally an interview with the “Standby Team” (link later), an all-female group of German Trekkies that all but rescued Star Trek from dying from bad dubbing.

At this point I decided to go beyond a few half-brewn e-mails or tweets and to set up this page to collect infos on Star Trek in the German language area for myself and for English speaking fellow Trekkies.